MASTER 
NEGA  TIVE 

NO.  91-80249 


> 


..   I-d'^rJu^Kn.V 


MICROFILMED  1991 
COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARIES/NEW  YORK 


as  part  of  the 
Foundations  of  Western  Civilization  Preservation  Project 


Funded  by  the 
NATIONAL  ENDOWMENT  FOR  THE  HUMANITIES 


Reproductions  may  not  be  made  without  permission  from 

Columbia  University  Library 


COPYRIGHT  STATEMENT 

The  copyright  law  of  the  United  States  -  Title  1 7,  United 
States  Code  -  concerns  the  making  of  photocopies  or  other 
reproductions  of  copyrighted  material... 

Columbia  University  Library  reserves  the  right  to  refuse  to 
accept  a  copy  order  if,  in  its  judgement,  fulfillment  of  the  order 
would  involve  violation  of  the  copyright  law. 


A  UTHOR : 


JOHNSTON 


> 


H.W. 


TITLE: 


TEACHING  OF  VERGIL 


PLACE: 


CHICAGO 

DA  TE : 

1901 


•» 


COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARIES 
PRESERVATION  DEPARTMENT 

« 

DIBLIOGRAPHIC  MrCROFORM  TARHFT 


Master  Negative  // 


Original 

Material  as  Filmed  -  Existing  Bibliogra 

phic  Record 

i 

BKS/PROD 

Books                 FUL/BIB        NYCG91 

-B75664 

Acquisitions 

i            NYCG-PT 

Record  1 

of   0  -  Record  added   today 

• 

T 

I0:NYC691-B75664          RTYP:a          ST:p 

FRN: 

MS: 

EL: 

A0:08-21-91 

CC:9668 

\     BLT:am              OCF:?       CSC:? 

MOD: 

SNR: 

ATC: 

U0:08-21-91 

CP:nyu 

L:eng            INT:?       GPC:? 

BIO: 

:? 

FIC: 

:? 

CON: 

:??? 

PC:r 

PD:1991/1901                 REP:? 

CPI: 

•9 

>    * 

FSI: 

•9 

■     • 

ILC; 

:???? 

HEI:?        II:? 

HMD: 

OR:           POL:             DM:             RR 

• 

COL: 

EML. 

GEN:        BSE: 

040 

NNC^cNNC 

100   10 

Johnston,    H.    W. 

245   14 

The   teaching  of   Vergil    in   high  schooISrh[microf orm]. 

260   0 

Chicago, rbScott,   Forseman   & 

Company 

,{:cl901. 

300 

13  p. 

LOG 

ORIG 

1                       QO 

08-21-91 

• 

• 

Restrictions  on  Use: 


FILM     SIZE:_3^i3^>^ 


IMAGE  PLACEMENT:    lAOlA)  ID    IID 


DATE     FILMED:,, 
FILMED  BY:    RESEARi 


iX 


TECI-INICAL  MICROFORM  DATA 


REDUCTION     RATIO:..!!^?^ 


INITIALS 


-&^- 


H  PUBLICATIONS.  INC  WOODI3R1DGE.  CT 


r 


Association  for  Information  and  Image  Management 

1100  Wayne  Avenue.  Suite  1100 
Silver  Spring.  Maryland  20910 

301/587-8202 


€4K4 


^     ««? 


Centimeter 

1         2        3        4        5        6        7 

iiiiliiiiliiiiliiiiliiiiliiiiliiiiiiiiiliiiiliiiiliiiiliiiiiiiiil 


8 


iiU 


III  iiiiiiii 


li I 


9       10 

llllllllllllH 


11       12       13      14       15   mm 

iiliiiiliiiiliiiiliiiiliiiiliiiiliiiiliiiil 


I     I 


Inches 


1 


1 1 1 1 1 


TTT 


1.0 

1^  12.8 

1.4 

2.5 
22 

I.I 

2.0 
1.8 

1.6 

1.25 

TTT 


T 


MfiNUFPCTURED  TO  PIIM  STRNDRRDS 
BY  RPPLIED  IMRGEt  INC. 


%^\,..4^ 


^^  .^  ^ 


^? 


CMARLIS  KNAP? 
UBKARY 

1937 

riTi ■Mnfinmoi 


61VX> 


LIBRARY 


tvffltJ^i^ 


THE 


•     i     •    • 


•      •     f »  ••    • •• 

»  »   t    • 

•  •  «    •  «• 


TEAcHrN(i:i.;.d:K:'.yERGi  l 


•  •  •  •  • 


*  < 

*  • 


•  •    «  '  •  •  t 


•  4 


«   *  •  » 


. » 


..^  IN. 


» t 

»    » 


■    y   • 

•      •  »   • 

t    •    •  •      • 

»  t  f        » 


« 


HIGH    SCHOOLS 


RBAD  BBPORB  THB  CLASSICAL  SBCTION  OP  THB  INDIANA  STATE 
T8ACHBRS'  ASSOCIATION  AT  INDIANAPOLIS,  DBC.  28,  190O 


BY 


H.  W.  JOHNSTON,  L  H.  D. 

PROFESSOR  OF  LATIN  IN  THE  INDIANA   UNIVERSITT 


)• 


CHICAGO 

SCOTT,  FORESMAN  &  COMPANY 

1901 


■■'■"*     ■**  --—-■— -^n^--    -     -    L-,, 


— --■•'    -^  ~»t ,   .-.."^     '  rrirrufc-i 


i! 


;•/ 


•  •  • 


.••  ••• 

•  •      • 

•  •      • 


»  • 


•,  •••    •••   ••  « 

•  •   ••••••  • 

•  •  ••  •••••  • 

•  ••   •••••  • 

«••    •    ••   ••• 


4 


•    •    •  •     • 

•  •        •        • 


•    •  ' 


V.5 


\ 


The  Teaching  of  Vergil 
.   in  High  Schools. 

In  this  paper  it  is  assumed  that  Vergil  is  the  first  Latin 
poet  to  be  read  in  the  High  School.  This  is  the  case  in 
most  of  our  commissioned  schools  and  there  are  good 
reasons  why  it  should  be  so,  but  four-fifths  of  what  I  have 
to  say  will  apply  as  well  to  the  study  of  Ovid,  and  what 
remains  may  be  ignored  by  the  teacher  who  takes  up  Ver- 
gil after  the  use  of  Ovid  for  a  term.  I  speak  from  the 
standpoint  of  a  college  teacher,  of  course,  but  I  must  be 
allowed  to  say  that  I  taught  Vergil  for  fifteen  years  in  a 
secondary  school  and  therefore  speak  not  as  one  of  the 
scribes. 

What  Vergil  stands  for  to  the  scholar  and  man  of  let- 
ters is  fitly  set  forth  in  the  well-known  poem  of  Tennyson, 
written  for  the  celebration  of  the  nineteen-hundredth  anni- 
versary of  Vergirs  death.     But  to  the  High  School  teacher, 
in  his  professional  capacity  at  least,  Vergil  is  merely  the 
introduction  to  the  study  of  Latin  poetry.     This  is  the 
important  thing  to  keep  in  mind,  the  key  to  the  whole 
situation,  the  clue  that  the  teacher  must  follow  through 
all  the  windings  of  the  labyrinth.     His  business  is  simply 
to  make  the  pupil  to  know  and  to  feel  the  differences 
between  classical  poetry  and  classical  prose.    All  things 
else  are  unimportant  in  comparison.     If  these  fundamental 
and  characteristic  differences  are  mastered  in  the  High 
School  once  for  all,  the  pupil  has  acquired  a  knowledge 
of  great  value  to  him  in  the  study  of  his  own  language, 
even  if  he  never  looks  into  a  Latin  book  again,  while,  if 
he  is  to  cross  the  threshold,  he  has  received  the  best  pos- 
sible preparation  for  the  study  of  Horace  and  Terence  and 


4  THE  TEACHING  OF  VERGIL 

Plautus  and  also  for  the  study  of  the  prose  of  Livy  and 
Tacitus  as  distinguished  from  that  of  Caesar  and  Cicero. 
On  the  other  hand,  if  these  differences  are  not  to  be  mas- 
tered in  the  High  School,  the  pupil  had  better  read  no 
Latin  poetry  at  all,  but  take  with  him  to  college  instead 
a  broader  knowledge  of  the  two  great  prose  writers  of 
classic  times. 

Vergil's  poetry  is  distinguished  from  the  prose  of  Caesar 
and  Cicero  by  the  metrical  form  and  by  the  diction.  I 
shall  speak  of  the  form  first  because  many  of  the  peculi- 
arities of  the  diction  cease  to  seem  arbitrary  and  unreason- 
able as  soon  as  the  pupil  really  understands  the  construc- 
tion of  the  verse  and  the  difficulties  inherent  in  it.  That 
Vergirs  verse  is  the  "stateliest  measure  ever  moulded  by 
the  lips  of  man"  we  may  believe  on  the  authority  of  Tenny- 
son, himself  the  greatest  master  of  meter  that  has  written 
in  English,  but  it  is  far  more  important  for  the  pupil  to 
realize  that  the  hexameter  had  come  from  Greece  too 
recently  to  be  completely  naturalized  by  Vergil's  time. 
The  teacher  does  well  who  tries  to  bring  his  pupil  to  feel 
in  Vergil's  verse  what  Tennyson  has  aptly  called  "the 
ocean-roll  of  rhythm"  that  sounds  "forever  of  imperial 
Rome,"  but  he  will  do  better  if  he  first  makes  him  under- 
stand the  full  meaning  of  a  favorite  phrase  of  mine,  the 
"Shackles  of  the  Meter,"  which  I  shall  explain  hereafter. 
For,  between  ourselves,  nobody  knows  today — ^Tennyson 
himself  did  not  know — precisely  how  Vergil's  "ocean-roll 
of  rhythm"  sounded  in  the  ears  of  Augustus  when  he 
listened  to  the  majestic  verses  in  the  sixth  Aeneid,  but 
any  schoolboy  can  be  made  to  see  how  the  "Shackles  of 
the  Meter"  restrained  the  natural  choice  of  words,  and 
forms,  and  constructions,  and  arrangement,  until  they  made 
almost  a  new  language  out  of  the  Latin  the  boy  thought 
he  was  beginning  to  understand. 


IN  HIGH  SCHOOLS.  5 

You  will  not  be  surprised  now  if  I  say  very  plainly 
that  I  attach  very  little  importance  to  the  reading  aloud 
in  the  class  room  of  large  portions  of  Vergil's  verse.  Leav- 
ing out  of  view  the  vexed  question  of  how  Latin  verse  is 
to  be  read  aloud,  I  still  think  that  much  of  the  time  devoted 
in  some  of  our  schools  to  oral  scanning  might  be  spent 
to  better  advantage  on  the  analysis  of  the  verse  without 
pronouncing  it  at  all.  The  one  object  should  be  to  make 
the  pupil  absolutely  familiar  with  the  normal  structure  of 
the  verse,  and  in  only  less  degree  with  the  deviations  from 
the  normal  form  that  Vergil  allowed  himself,  the  so-called 
metrical  licenses.  The  things  the  pupil  needs  to  know  are 
given  in  every  school  grammar,  but  to  ground  the  pupil 
thoroughly  in  them  requires  a  good  deal  more  than  the 
study  of  rules  and  the  halting  scansion  that  the  ordinary 
method  gives. 

I  want  to  urge,  therefore,  that  the  pupil  be  required  to 
write  out  verse  by  verse  a  full  book  of  the  Aeneid  in  the 
way  I  am  about  to  describe.  Nothing  less  than  a  full  book 
will  do,  but  it  makes  very  little  difference  what  particular 
book  is  selected  for  the  purpose.  Still,  as  the  language 
depends  largely  upon  the  meter,  the  pupil  should  not  be 
made  to  translate  much  until  he  has  scanned  much,  and  I 
should  recommend  that  the  scanning  commence  with  the 
translating,  and  go  on  with  it  hand  in  hand,  and  that  no 
more  text  be  assigned  for  a  lesson  than  what  the  student 
can  study  from  the  metrical  as  well  as  from  the  linguistic 
side. 

Now,  when  the  pupil  has  worked  through  the  introduc- 
tion to  his  Vergil  and  is  ready  to  begin  the  study  of  the 
text,  let  him  procure  a  suitable  note  book  and  write  on  the 
first  page,  in  a  large,  bold  hand,  "The  Scanning  of  the  First 
Aeneid."  Then  let  him  rule  off  the  odd  pages,  3,  5,  7,  etc., 
with  seven  columns  to  the  page,  writing  at  the  top  of 


6  THE  TEACHING  OF  VERGIL 

the  first  column  "Vs.,"  for  verse  and  numbering  the  remain- 
ing columns  i,  2,  3,  4,  5,  6.  Then  no  matter  where  he 
opens  the  book  he  will  have  a  blank  page  on  the  left 
and  on  the  right  one  that  looks  like  this : 


Vs. 

1 

2 

8 

4 

6 

6 

Then  let  him  write  in  the  verse  column  the  number  of  the 
verse  he  is  to  scan,  and  after  it  the  succession  of  light  and 
heavy  syllables  that  the  verse  presents,  each  foot  in  its 
own  column  under  the  corresponding  number.  Let  us  sup- 
pose, for  an  example,  that  he  is  working  on  I,  270, 

Imperio  explebit  regnumque  db  sede  Lavini,  his  book 
will  show 


Vs. 

1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

270 

—  ou 

—  — 

■ 

—  uu 

—  — 

When  he  is  called  upon  to  recite  he  will  read  from  his 
note  book :  "Vs.  270,  dactyl,  three  spondees,  one  dactyl,  one 
spondee."  The  teacher  will  then  ask  whether  he  has  noticed 
any  peculiarity  in  the  verse.  The  bright  boy  who  is  using 
Greenough's  edition  will  say  at  once  that  the  a  in  Lavini 
must  be  short,  though  Greenough  has  it  long  in  his  vocab- 


IN  HIGH  SCHOOLS.  J 

ulary.  The  teacher  will  refer  him  for  confirmation  to 
Lewis*  School  Dictionary  and  will  have  the  whole  class 
write  on  the  blank  page  opposite  the  verse  in  their  note 
books  something  like  this:  "270',  Ld/vini:  the  a  is  short  in 
Vergil  in  the  name  of  the  town,  cf.  I,  258,  although  it  is 
long  in  the  derived,  adj.  Lavinius,  cf.  L  2.  Correct  Green- 
ough accordingly.  See  Lewis  s.  v."  Or  suppose  the  verse 
happens  to  be  I,  308, 

Qui  teneant  (nam  inculta  videt)  hominesne  feraene,  the 
book  will  show: 


Vs. 

1 

2 

3 

4 

6 

6 

808 

KHJ 



—  ou 

—  uu 

—  uu 

—   u 

Across  the  page  the  bright  pupils  will  have  written  and  the 
teacher  will  have  the  others  write:  "308*,  Wd^^' diastole, 
see  A,  359  f  (or  B,  367  2 ;  or  G,  721 ;  or  H,  608  V)."  Then 
when  they  come  to  verse  651, 

Pergama  cum  peteret  inconcessosque  hymenaeos,  the 
note  book  need  read  merely:  "651*,  pete/ret :  cttn/ det, 
308*,"  for  the  license  is  the  same  and  the  explanation  has 
been  noted  once  for  all. 

The  lemmata  of  the  notes  should  be  written  precisely  as 
above.  Thus,  "651*,  pete  I  ret"  shows  at  a  glance  that  the 
note  is  on  the  long  e  in  the  first  syllable  of  the  third  foot. 
Every  mark  means  something. 

Of  course  the  larger  number  of  verses  will  show  no 
peculiarities,  but  it  is  worth  while  to  write  them  out  in 
full,  if  only  to  make  sure  of  the  fact  and  to  impress  the 
long  vowels  upon  the  memories  of  the  pupils.    After  one 


8 


THE  TEACHING  OF  VERGIL 


full  book  has  been  scanned  in  this  way  the  teacher  may 
introduce  oral  scanning  at  his  discretion,  but  the  pupil  should 
be  required  to  enter  in  his  note  book  the  full  scanning  of 
all  irregular  verses  he  meets,  always  referring  to  the  last 
preceding  verse  which  shows  the  same  irregularity,  or  in 
the  case  of  something  new,  to  the  grammar,  dictionary,  or 
other  authority. 

When  the  first  book  has  been  finished  it  is  time  to  intro- 
duce another  exercise.  Select  from  the  later  books  of 
Vergil,  or  from  any  source  you  may  prefer,  two  or  three 
easy  hexameters  that  show  no  irregularities,  no  elisions 
even,  and  dictate  them  to  the  class,  reading  the  words  in 
any  order  except  that  given  in  the  verse.  Then  direct  the 
class  to  rearrange  the  words  regardless  of  the  sense  so  that 
they  will  scan.     Take  for  example  III,  403, 

Quin  ubi  transmissae  steterint  trans  aequora  classes. 
You  may  get  the  Vergilian  order  the  next  day  or  you  may 
get 

Aequora  transmissae  steterint  trans  quin  ubi  classes,  or 

Aequora  transmissae  classes  steterint  ubi  quin  trans,  or 
still  others ;  the  more  versions  there  are  the  better  for  your 
purpose.  Then  in  a  week  or  two  you  may  assign  verses 
showing  elisions,  and  gradually  you  may  introduce  the  more 
difficult  licenses,  always  warning  the  pupil  of  their  pres- 
ence. Finally  you  may  venture  to  set  irregular  verses, 
merely  saying  that  they  are  irregular,  but  not  naming  the 
particular  irregularity  shown.  You  will  find  this  exercise 
one  of  unusual  interest  and  very  profitable. 

Now  it  seems  to  me  to  need  no  argument  to  show  that 
Latin  versification  studied  in  this  way  becomes  a  real  thing 
to  the  student,  much  more  real  than  by  the  method  of  oral 
scansion  only.  I  should  not  plunge  deep  into  the  mysteries 
of  caesura  and  diaeresis;  such  refinements  may  be  reserved 
for  the  formal  study  of  metrics  in  college.  But  the  rough 
framework  of  the  verse  ought  to  be  clearly  understood. 


IN  HIGH  SCHOOLS.  •.  9 

I  do  not  mean  that  I  would  never  read  verse  aloud  to 
my  pupils  and  have  them  read  to  me,  but  I  would  make 
the  oral  work  subordinate  to  the  other  if  I  lacked  time  to 
do  them  both  as  I  should  like. 

The  second  point  to  be  emphasized  is  VergiFs  diction; 
Vergilian  grammar  it  might  be  called,  or  better  still,  per- 
haps, poetical  usage.  For  we  are  not  concerned  nearly  so 
much  with  what  is  Vergilian  as  with  what  is  not  Caesarian 
or  Ciceronian.  It  is  simply  the  difference  between  the 
Latinity  of  prose  and  poetry  that  we  must  make  clear,  the 
difference,  that  is,  between  the  form  or  construction  that 
the  pupil  finds  in  the  text  of  Vergil,  and  the  form  or  con- 
struction that  he  would  use  himself  to  express  the  same 
thought  in  the  Latin  he  has  learned  from  Caesar  and  Cicero. 
Let  me  illustrate  my  meaning  with  examples.  Before  you 
assign  your  class  their  lesson  of  the  first  ten  lines  in  Bk.  I, 
suppose  you  dictate  a  few  short  English  sentences  to  be 
turned  at  once  into  Latin.  You  will  of  course  furnish  the 
needed  vocabulary  yourself,  but  you  must  be  careful  not  to 
let  the  pupil  model  his  translation  after  Vergil.  Three  sen- 
tences will  be  enough  for  the  first  day : 

1.  Caesar  came  from  the  shores  of  Troy. 

2.  Caesar  came  to  Italy. 

3.  Caesar  drove  the  hero  to  encounter  dangers. 
For  the  first  the  boy  will  write : 

Caesar  ab  oris  Troiae  venit; 
and  for  the  second: 

Caesar  ad  (perhaps  in)  Italiam  venit, 

Vergil,  too,  has  written  ab  oris,  but  he  has  no  preposition 
before  Italiam,  It  is  clear  that  you  need  waste  no  time  on 
ab  oris,  but  you  do  need  to  explain  the  omission  of  the  prep- 
osition before  the  name  of  a  country,  for  this  is  a  purely 
poetical  usage.  You  could  find  no  better  place,  either,  to 
press  the  point,  for  the  very  next  verse  shows  litora  with- 


10 


THE  TEACHING  OF  VERGIL 


IN  HIGH  SCHOOLS. 


II 


out  a  preposition  and  this  is  carrying  the  construction  as  far 
as  it  goes.     For  your  third  sentence  the  boy  writes: 

Caesar  znrum  impulit  ut  Idbores  adiret.  Vergil  has 
adire,  and  here  the  pupil  finds  the  infinitive  used  to  express 
result,  the  very  thing  that  you  have  been  marking  him 
down  for  during  three  long  years.  Surely  these  ten  lines 
with  at  least  three  other  constructions  that  Caesar  would  not 
have  used  are  enough  for  the  first  lesson. 
What  is  true  of  constructions  is  true  of  the  forms.     In 

III,  354,  the  pupil  meets  aulai  (gen.)  for  aulae;  in  I,  636  dii 
(gen.)  for  diei;  in  I,  257,  metu  (dat.)  for  metui;  in  I,  95, 
quis  for  quibus;  in  IV,  493,  ferveo  is  third  conjugation;  in 

IV,  493,  the  pres.  inf.  pass,  ends  in  -ier.  And  besides  scores 
of  Latin  forms  as  strange  as  these,  brought  back  by  Vergil 
after  they  had  gone  out  of  use,  the  pupil  must  learn  to 
decline  dozens  of  Greek  proper  nouns,  with  which  he  gets 
none  too  much  help  in  the  school  grammars  and  commen- 
taries. 

These  things  and  things  like  these  must  be  emphasized 
on  the  grammar  side,  but  these  things  only.  It  is  time  now 
to  take  for  granted  the  ordinary  prose  constructions,  and  the 
teacher  should  notice  those  only  that  the  translation  or  the 
scanning  shows  to  have  been  misunderstood  by  the  pupil. 
Or  course  you  will  find  in  Vergil  good  prose  constructions 
that  must  be  explained  as  carefully  as  purely  poetical  con- 
structions, but  these  are  those  only  that  have  not  occurred 
often  enough  in  Caesar  and  Cicero  to  be  recognized  at  a 
glance.  For  example,  the  subjunctives  vocasses  and  tulisset 
in  IV,  678,  679,  are  good  Ciceronian  Latin,  but  they  do  not 
occur  in  the  orations  usually  read  in  our  schools.  On  the 
other  hand  such  things  as  the  ablative  of  means,  agent,  abso- 
lute, specification,  the  dative  of  possessor,  agent,  indirect 
object,  may  surely  be  passed  now  as  we  pass  a  friend  whom 
we  meet  a  dozen  times  a  day,  with  a  smile  of  recognition 


but  without  stopping  to  shake  hands.  It  is  intolerable  to 
find  these  things  harped  on  so  late  in  the  course  in  books 
otherwise  good.  If  Greenough  lets  a  single  ablative  of 
means  in  the  first  book  go  by  without  a  chat  and  a  smoke 
I  have  failed  to  notice  it.  I  have  taken  pains  to  make  sure 
that  on  the  first  21  lines  he  has  ten  notes  with  elaborate 
grammatical  references  on  such  things  as  the  abl.  of  time, 
abl.  abs.,  abl.  of  specification  (twice !),  subj.  of  purpose,  subj. 
with  dum,  infin.  with  word  of  saying  and  primus  with  ad- 
verbial force.  If  the  pupil  still  halts  on  these  things  after 
three  years*  drill  in  lessons,  composition,  Caesar  and  Cicero, 
it  is  too  late  to  help  him.  He  was  either  naturally  dull  on  the 
language  side  and  ought  to  have  dropped  Latin  long  ago,  or 
he  has  been  poorly  taught  and  the  superintendent  ought  to 
drop  the  teacher  now.  If  the  pupil  is  trying  to  read  Vergil 
without  these  three  years  of  preparation  the  Board  ought  to 
drop  the  superintendent.  Something  must  drop  somewhere. 
But  where  do  my  "Shackles  of  the  Meter"  come  in? 
Everywhere.  Once  let  a  pupil  understand  the  difficulty 
there  is  in  constructing  a  Latin  hexameter,  a  difficulty  that 
he  will  understand  only  after  such  a  drill  as  I  have  sug- 
gested, once  let  him  know  that  over  the  free  choice  of  words, 
the  logical  arrangement,  the  usual  forms,  and  the  regular 
constructions  ruled  the  despot  meter,  and  it  becomes  evident 
enough  to  him  why  Vergil  called  up  forgotten  forms  from 
the  dead,  imported  constructions  from  a  foreign  land,  and 
broke  boldly  all  the  laws  of  grammar  that  even  Caesar  rec- 
ognized as  binding.  In  I,  57  sceptra  is  plural ;  did  Aeolus 
have  more  than  one  scepter?  In  I,  276  impius  Furor  has  his 
hands  bound  behind  his  back,  post  tergum,  singular,  while  in 
II,  57,  Sinon  has  his  bound,  post  terga,  plural ;  did  Sinon 
have  more  backs  than  Furor?  In  III,  540,  four  horses  are 
called  "these  droves,"/ia^c  armenta,  plural ;  did  two  horses 
make  a  drove  in  prehistoric  Italy?    In  all  these  places  the 


t^N 


12 


THE  TEACHING  OF  VERGIL 


IN  HIGH  SCHOOLS. 


13 


ii 


logically  correct  singular  ends  in  -tn,  and  is  followed  by  a 
word  beginning  with  a  consonant.  This  would  make  its  final 
syllable  heavy  where  Vergil  needs  a  light  syllable,  and  there- 
fore rather  than  hunt  up  another  word  or  recast  his  v^rse 
he  has  changed  the  singular  to  a  plural,  "The  Shackles  of 
the  Meter."  The  same  thing  changes  voice  (III,  61),  mood 
(I,  ID,  17),  tense  (I,  49,  300),  it  rides  over  everything. 
Certain  words  are  absolutely  shut  out  of  hexameter  verse; 
what  could  Vergil  do  with  the  pluperfect  or  future  perfect 
tense  of  moneo,  or  with  any  word  that  contained  a  light  syl- 
lable between  two  heavy  ones?  The  "Shackles  of  the 
Meter"  again.  Even  in  such  cases  as  Italiam  and  litora  (I, 
2  and  3)  he  omits  the  preposition  only  because  he  has  no 
room  for  it  in  his  verse;  in  I,  68,  he  writes  in  Italiam  as 
Caesar  would  write  it,  because  here  the  extra  syllable  is 
needed  in  the  verse.  Take  an  extreme  instance:  in  I,  707 
and  748,  the  verse  begins  with  the  words  nee  non  et.    The 

,  nee  and  the  non  make  no  sense,  they  simply  neutralize  each 
other,  but  they  do  make  a  handy  little  spondee,  and  Vergil  has 

.  used  them  in  several  places  to  fill  out  his  verse  when  the 
words  he  wanted  did  not  come  to  him  at  call.  Perhaps  if 
he  had  lived  to  finish  his  Aeneid  he  would  have  replaced 
these  stop  gaps  with  fitting  words  (they  are  found  only 
once  in  the  Georgics,  I,  112),  as  well  as  have  filled  up  the 
broken  verses  that  occur  occasionally. 

Now,  these  two  things,  the  study  of  the  versification  and 
the  study  of  poetical  usage,  are  the  essentials  of  secondary 
work  in  Vergil.  If  they  are  done  well  to  the  exclusion  of 
all  else,  the  year's  work  will  not  have  been  in  vain.  If  they 
are  not  done  well,  no  matter  what  else  is  done,  it  is  worse 
than  vanity  to  pretend  that  the  student  has  studied  Vergil. 
As  a  matter  of  fact  there  will  really  be  plenty  of  time  to  do 
much  more,  and  there  are  many  things  worth  doing  in  addi- 
tion to  these  essentials.    The  teacher  can  bring  home  to  the 


pupil  the  freer  range  of  order  and  vocabulary  in  English 
poetry  as  compared  with  English  prose  by  allowing  him  to 
follow  in  his  translations  the  Latin  order  much  more  closely 
than  would  be  permissible  in  a  translation  of  one  of  Cicero's 
orations.  He  may  send  the  pupil  back  to  the  sturdy  English 
of  the  Bible  or  the  prayer  book  for  words  that  are  no  longer 
used  in  modem  prose,  because  the  pupil  is  translating  poetry 
and  in  our  modern  poetry  we  too  use  ancient  forms.  He 
may  encourage  the  pupil  to  essay  little  translations  in  verse, 
for  these  things  give  zest  to  the  daily  bread  and  potatoes. 
He  may  show  how  many  of  the  constructions  originally 
made  necessary  by  the  "Shackles  of  the  Meter"  were  first 
endured,  then  pitied,  then  embraced,  and  taken  over  into 
prose  to  the  great  enrichment  of  the  style  of  Livy  and  Tac- 
itus. He  will  acquaint  the  pupil  with  the  story  of  Troy, 
which  has  inspired  so  large  a  part  of  the  imaginative  litera- 
ture of  three  thousand  years.  He  will  make  him  familiar 
with  Homer  in  good  English  translations,  and  start  him  in 
the  study  of  Greek  Mythology,  and  give  him  his  first 
glimpse  of  the  vague  views  of  man's  destiny  that  it  was  left 
for  Christianity  to  dispel.  He  will  have  the  pupil  commit 
to  memory  the  poem  of  Tennyson  to  which  I  have  referred, 
and  will  help  him  to  feel  the  wondrous  sympathy  of  the 
Laureate  of  England  for  the  Laureate  of  Rome.  And  with 
all  this  he  will  give  him  a  conception  of  the  power  and 
majesty  of  Rome  that  can  be  had  in  no  other  way,  and  will 
prepare  him  to  understand  the  essential  weakness  of  all  the 
World  Powers  that  time  has  ever  known.  All  these  things 
ought  ye  to  do,  but  not  to  leave  the  others  undone.  They 
are  all  well  worth  the  doing,  but  they  are  but  the  fringe  and 
the  tassels.  The  warp  and  woof  of  the  Teaching  of  Vergil  in 
the  High  Schools  is  the  never  relaxing  drill  on  the  structure 
of  the  verse  and  the  usages  of  poetry. 


i* 


LATIN  COURSES 

IN.  THE  INDIANA  UNIVERSITY. 

Summer  Session, 

The  Summer  Session  of  the  Indiana  University  lasts 
for  six  weeks.  There  are  no  tuition  or  contingent  fees,  the 
only  charge  being  one  dollar  for  the  use  of  the  library. 
Professor  H.  W.  Johnston,  head  of  the  department  of  Latin, 
will  give  three  courses  daily.  One  is  intended  especially 
for  teachers  in  high  schools.  It  will  consist  largely  of 
lectures,  discussions,  and  quizzes  on  approximately  the  fol- 
lowing subjects :  Mondays  :  Caesar's  Indirect  Discourse, 
Tuesdays  :  High  School  Latin ;  the  course  of  study ;  read- 
ing Latin  in  its  order ;  teaching  Latin  Composition ;  teach- 
ing Vergil;  the  equipment  and  pay  of  the  teacher. 
Wednesdays:  Five  lectures  on  Roman  Life;  the  family, 
marriage,  education,  dependents,  the  house,  clothing,  meals, 
etc.  Thursdays:  The  Subjunctive  Mood  in  one  of 
Cicero's  Orations  against  Catiline.  Fridays:  The  pros- 
ody of  Vergil  or  Ovid. 

Further  information  may  be  had  of  Professor  Johnston. 
Circulars  showing  courses  offered  in  all  departments  of 
instruction  will  be  sent  on  application  to  the  Registrar, 
Bloomington,  Ind. 


V 


■    1 

II 


( 


